Carlos Sainz Jr will drive alongside Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso next season, giving the Italian team an all-rookie line-up for 2015.
The Spaniard replaces Jean-Eric Vergne who recently confirmed he was out of the running for the seat, despite the Frenchman being favoured by team principal Franz Tost.
The decision was ultimately made by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko who wanted to promote ‘new blood’ to the team, rather than retaining Vergne for a fourth season.
The 20-year-old said the decision finally allowed him to realise his career goal of landing a seat in Formula 1.
“I am really happy to have landed the drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso,” said Sainz Jr. “Ever since I have been part of Red Bull’s Young Driver Programme, this has been my aim and I want to thank Red Bull for putting their faith in me.
“I have had a very successful season in World Series by Renault this year and now I am looking forward to taking the step up to Formula 1. I tested for a day with Toro Rosso last year and I liked the atmosphere in the team. In the next few months I will be working hard on my preparation, ready to get in the cockpit in Jerez for the first test of next year. It will be nice to make my “official” debut as a Formula 1 driver in my home country!”
Franz Tost added: “With Carlos Sainz joining Max Verstappen in our driver line-up next year, we continue the Toro Rosso tradition of providing youngsters from the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme with their first steps in Formula 1.
“I have watched Carlos progress through the junior categories, always improving as he moved higher up the ladder, culminating in a well-deserved win in this year’s World Series. However, I also remember the day’s testing he did with us at Silverstone in 2013 in the STR8. He really surprised me and his engineers that day, with his mature approach and his speed.”
Sainz Jr took the standard route into motorsport, winning the Asia-Pacific KF3 karting title in 2008 and two years later he made his single-seater debut in Formula BMW, before moving up the ranks through Formula Renault 2.0, British Formula 3, then GP3 in 2013. This year has seen Sainz become the youngest ever winner of the World Series by Renault 3.5 Championship. Last week, Carlos drove in the Abu Dhabi test for Infiniti Red Bull Racing.
